Position adjustable load support mechanism

Abstract

An improved mechanism for positioning loads of varying magnitudes, such as LCD displays, etc. The position of the load can be varied in height and angle according to the requirements of the user. The mechanism incorporates an adjustable sliding fulcrum, a support arm, a housing with four generally perpendicular channels, and a gas spring. The mechanism is initially manually adjusted for a particular load and then it automatically adjusts proportionally for the varying moments generated as the position of the load changes. The load is therefore evenly counterbalanced throughout its range of motion, and its position is maintained.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to video display support mechanisms, specifically an improved position adjustable support for flat panel Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD), A worker at a typical computer terminal may be required to spend long hours in a somewhat constrained physical posture. In order to maintain user comfort and create the proper ergonomic position of the video display it is often necessary for the user to be able to adjust the position of his video display. Various prior art mechanisms have created devices that give the user this adjustability, however, these previous designs have inherent mechanical and functional shortcomings.The typical prior art mounting systems contain various combinations of mounting brackets, support arms, friction locking knobs, ball gimbals, arcuate slots, mechanical springs, and gas springs. While the majority of these designs solve several of the typical usage problems, they are not very efficient support mechanism throughou...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Accordingly, my load support mechanism provides several advantages over the prior art. Included in these advantages is the mounting position of the arm pivot axis, which is located some distance above the user's working surface. This improved position allows the support arm to operate vertically through a much larger range of motion, which is very useful in the increasingly popular Sit to Stand user applications.

In several prior art mechanisms, the gas spring is mounted with its axis relatively close to the pivot axis of the arm and at a small angle to the axis of the arm. This design has the inherent problem of requiring high counterbalancing forces from the gas spring, which in turn creates difficulty in adjusting the counterbalancing forces and limits the materials available for the heavily stressed components. One of the most significant aspects of the improved load support mechanism is the unique arrangement of the support arm, gas spring, and a horizontally adjustable fulcrum. This arrangement creates numerous mechanical and functional advantages. Since the distance between the axis of the gas spring and the adjustable fulcrum is relatively large compared to the prior art described previously, the force required from the gas spring to properly counter balance a load is much lower. A gas spring with a force in the 180-220N range is adequate to completely counter balance a typical video display. With this smaller counter balancing requirement two immediate advantages are evident, such as the ability to easily adjust the counter balance forces without the use of tools. A relatively small finger tip rotatable knob is adequate to adjust the position of the fulcrum and therefore change the counter balancing forces. The lower force requirement on the gas spring also allows many additional options in the design and material selection for the supporting components. The improved load support mechanism has a large portion of its components designed as molded plastics such as ABS or Nylon. This allows for many aesthetic design possibilities and less expensive components.

Since the fulcrum design allows additional distance between the gas spring axis and the fulcrum, the adjustability range of the improved design is greatly increased over the prior art. The improved design can be adjusted to properly counter balance loads where the ratio of the heaviest load to the lightest load can be as much as 5 to 1. In a typical prior art design as previously described, this ratio rarely exceeds 2 to 1. This is a very large advantage, because it minimizes the requirement of the user to determine the weight of his video display before purchasing a supporting mechanism, and it allows the manufacturer to produce one unit that can support a wide range of loads, again reducing the cost of the manufacturing process.

The improved design creates a much preferred counter balancing moment due to its ability to continuously adjust the moment generated by the gas spring to more closely match that generated by the load as it is raised and lowered. In the previously described prior art mechanism, the counter balance moments generated by the mechanism do not closely match the requirements from the load. The improved design mechanism however, creates a continuously changing moment that varies proportionally with the angle of the arm. This removes the arm angle variable from the balancing requirement and allows a much closer match of counter balancing moments. This in turn eliminates the requirement to create additional friction in the mechanism. The improved design does not require any additional friction producing components. Therefore, the amount of force required by the user to reposition the load is significantly less than in other designs, making the repositioning of the load much easier. An additional, but not less significant, advantage of being able to closely match the counter balance moment generated by the gas spring to that required by the load, is the elimination of the tendency for the load to fade toward a lower position when it is in its uppermost position or to become over counter balanced and tend to rise when in its lowest position.

Problems solved by technology

This design has the inherent problem of requiring high counterbalancing forces from the gas spring, which in turn creates difficulty in adjusting the counterbalancing forces and limits the materials available for the heavily stressed components.

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